Drywall
hangers and ceiling and interior specialists represented by a half-dozen
Carpenters Union locals ended a two-week strike June 19 with the
ratification of a new two-year contract that will provide hourly
wage increases of $4.25 over the life of the pact.
Picketing ceased across Oregon and Southwest Washington June 16
after a tentative deal was reached with the help from a federal
mediator. Members voted June 19. It passed 715-50.
“It was interesting. The longer it (the strike) went, the
stronger it got,” said Eric Franklin, a spokesman for the
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.
The labor dispute, which started June 1, involved nearly 1,300 members
from Exterior and Interior Specialists Local 2154 in Portland, and
Carpenters Locals 1715 in Vancouver, 1065 in Salem, 1273 in Eugene,
306 in Redmond and 2067 in Medford. The Locals are affiliated with
the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters and represent
drywall hangers, acoustic ceiling and lather specialists. They negotiate
a master agreement with Associated Wall & Ceiling Contractors
of Oregon and SW Washington Inc. The association represents 11 drywall
and ceiling contractors in the area. Other independent contractors
sign off on whatever the association agrees to. However, shortly
after the strike began, 10 of the independent contractors and one
from the association signed interim agreements with the Carpenters.
Franklin said the new two-year deal is actually an extension of
the old contract with increases in compensation of $1.85 an hour
the first year and $2.40 an hour the second year. The second year
raise is split into two increases six months apart — $1.20
in June 2008 and $1.20 in December 2008. Workers had sought a $4.80
an hour raise over the term of the agreement.
All overtime pay will be calculated on the “taxable wage”
and not the “base wage,” as it has been in previous
contracts. The language change will result in a $1.60 hourly increase
in overtime rates.
The contract also puts employers on record supporting a Carpenter-backed
merger of the health and welfare trust. Initially, contractors opposed
merging with other Carpenter trusts to create a regionwide trust.
Ultimately, it is up to health and welfare trustees to enact a merger,
but management trustees are also contractors from the association.
Therefore, Franklin said, “they won’t stand in the way
of a merger.”
Specifically, the contract says that “upon the request of
the trustees of the Oregon-Washington Carpenters-Employers Health
and Welfare Trust and their certification that a merger with other
Carpenters Trusts in/from other locations is in the best interest
of the participants, the employer association will cooperate in
effectuating such a merger.”
“That language is huge for us,” Franklin continued.
“Management had fought it tooth and nail.”
The agreement does not contain new language related to wall finishing
and the signing of nonunion contractors. That language was taken
off the table after several unions said it was raiding their work.
Many of those unions did not sanction the strike because of the
language.
